Customer Reviews

Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hamby uses the tools of a professional historian -- excellent documentation and sources, superb prose, and healthy skepticism -- to brilliantly move beyond the standard adoring view of Truman as a plain-talking, quick-deciding everyman. While he is shown to have been those things, he is also revealed to have shared much of the pettiness, anger, and impulsiveness that have marked many of his predecessors and successors. He is (surprize, surprize) a human being rather than an icon. Especially good is Hamby's narrative of the downhill trajectory of Truman's second term and the post-Potsdam evolution of his anti-communism. Historical biography at its absolute best. And by rendering Truman human, he ultimately produces a more admiring portrait than other books that set out to be adoring.

David Mccullough's book on Truman is great. It is well written, full of great information, and though many people think too pro-Truman it does show why he was a Great Man. Unfortuantely many professors and especially those with Revisionist Tendancies don't feel Mccullough's book is scholary. They see it as Pop History. I think this is academic snobbery, and also stubborness upon the part of the revionists to admit Truman was a great President. However, a good way to silence the revisonists and to read another great book on Truman is to read Hamby's Man of the People. Though a little more critical than Mccollough, Hamby again paints a great portrait of a great man. For whatever reasons, Hamby is considered more scholary and his book more scholary. Whatever makes our Professors happy. But regardless, this is a great book. Though long like Mccollough, it tells a great story. Hamby is a fine historian who was also on c-spans look at Truman for its President's series. So in short, a more "academic" but just as great book on Truman.

Hamby's amazing biography of Truman will go down as one of the best books every written about a U.S. president. In amazing detail, he chronicles the rise to fame of one of America's most poorly understood presidents and makes clear that Truman had all the qualities of a good leader.

If I was pressed to offer a criticism of the book, however, I would note that it is exceptionally long and detailed. Hamby chronicles the minutae of Truman's early life and career in alarming detail. But if you can make it past the initial chapters, you won't regret it!

This is one of the better biographies of a US President I have ever read. Hamby avoids the hero worship which plagues other authors and, instead, takes a frank look at the man and how he discharged his duties, public and private, throughout his life. I found this book invaluable resource for understanding the cold war and American politics in the middle of the 20th century.

This book is easily the most complete, detailed biographical study written about Harry Truman. It reads easily and is carefully referenced. David McCullogh did a great job with the same subject . . . but Hamby's effort is even better.

I had a hard time getting through this book. The first half was pretty dull, and throughout the book the writing is workman-like, but not inspiring. As for the author's integrity, I would say the book is written fair-mindedly and with adequate research having been done.

I was unfortunately persuaded by a review of this book that it was a better one to start with than McCullough's Pulitzer-prize-winning book "Truman." So I gave it a try, but had to quit about 100 pages in because it was SO bad.

I suspect that Hamby (who wrote a book on Truman in 1972) had this book in the works when McCullough came out with his tour-de-force a few years before. Not wanting to lose out on his efforts to date, he packs his text with the most meaningless minutiae (eg, endless quotes of dollar figures regarding Harry's business ventures) just to show the reader, I think, how many hours he spent slogging through county records and such -- but at the cost of any flow to his narrative.

Now this is actually a very favorable spin on his writing, but I suspect the truth is that -- even without this junkyard of data -- he is not a writer capable of holding the reader's interest. SO many times while I was reading this book I kept a running argument with the author over why he was not providing more backstory to the events in Harry's life. When I finally dove into McCullough's book it was a man starved for oxygen finally breathing it in.

Perhaps the most telling part of Hamby's book is his dig on McCullough's book (p722). He describes it as "a nicely told story but (despite its length) episodic and lacking much in the way of historical perspective." From this I can assure Hamby that he has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in producing a book that is A POORLY TOLD STORY. Congratulations.

As for his own implication that he, and not McCullough, has provided historical perspective for Truman's story, well, I guess he's right if "historical perspective" is defined as "a mind-numbing recitation of meaningless but accurate little facts."

Using the "forest-for-the-trees" analogy, McCullough is a pilot carrying you effortlessly over the forest with a flawless narration. Hamby is a blind stuttering lumberjack who gets off on the texture of tree bark while you quitely go insane with boredom. (My apologies to any blind stutterering lumberjacks who may take offense.)